The choice of biotechnology-based alliances was driven by a number of criteria. First, collaborations in biotechnology are increasingly common phenomena and have proliferated at an unprecedented rate over the past decade. Its growth rate is still one of the most prolific of any industry sector (Hagedoorn, 1993). Second, biotechnology-based alliances can exist to serve various different purposes, even simultaneously, and thus allow researchers to study alliances of different strategic intents within a single industry setting. Third, given that biotechnology has been nominated America's ‘most promising’ industry (James, 1995), that significant efforts have been made by several European economies to grow and nurture a biotechnology-friendly environment, and that the industry characteristically features collaborative ventures of all kinds, it is imperative that these cooperative processes are well understood if countries like the USA, the UK, and Germany are to retain a leadership role. The alliances discussed here comprise partners from the USA and the UK. Fourth, given the volatile and high-risk nature of the biotechnology sector, it is reasonable to expect managers within it to be as insightful as those in most other industries, particularly as regards the management of complexity, ambiguity, and change.

Data sources

I selected three cases, each of which tells a quite different story, but being unaware of the extent of this diversity until well into the empirical research. The case study process was designed to meet three tests of qualitative research (King, Keohane, and Verba, 1994; Yin, 1994).